Biyani, who runs the country’s largest brick-and-mortar retail company and is known to disparage ecommerce rivals, said social media had become the medium of engagement for many entrepreneurs. "Very often I see conversation as a precursor to hint something strategic or big. In this case, it could even be consolidation or something more," he said.

While the Chinese ecommerce giant is a fringe player in its core business-to-business online trade in India, it has an indirect presence in the country’s ecommerce segment. It invested more than $500 million for a 40 per cent stake in One97 Communications, which runs Paytm, a wallet and ecommerce company, while Snapdeal raised $500 million from a clutch of investors including Alibaba last year.

Alibaba said recently it will make a direct entry into India’s online space and is said to be looking at several options. One could be increasing its stake in Paytm and spinning off its marketplace into a separate venture.

ET has also reported that it was talking to the Tatas for a broader strategic alliance besides deepening its relationship with Snapdeal.

The consolidation buzz in the ecommerce space has been strengthened by talks swirling around Flipkart. ET had reported on failed talks between the company and Amazon. Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal denied this.

ET and a few other newspapers have also reported that Flipkart was in funding talks with Alibaba. The founders of Flipkart and Snapdeal had lashed out at each other on Twitter Friday night over Alibaba’s entry plans.

Bansal, executive chairman of Flipkart, indirectly criticised the companies in which Alibaba has invested. "Alibaba deciding to start operations directly shows how badly their Indian investments have done so far," he tweeted.

The reference was to a mutual fund managed by Morgan Stanley marking down the value of Flipkart’s shares by 27 per cent, signalling that global investors believe India’s largest Internet company may be overvalued. Flipkart had said in a press statement that it is valued at $15.2 billion. A 27 per cent drop would put this at $11 billion.

In comparison, stocks of Biyani-owned entities — Future Retail, Future Consumer and Future Lifestyle Fashions — have gained 14-80 per cent on the BSE and have a combined market capitalisation of $1.5 billion. Biyani had accused online retailers of adopting predatory pricing two years ago. Earlier this month, he released a series of ads targeted at the three main online marketplaces — Flipkart, Amazon India and Snapdeal.

Last month, investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala said ecommerce companies were attracting too much investment without any meaningful retail disruption and was bearish on the business model. "I will consider buying Flipkart’s stake if it is valued at $100 million," he had joked.

The combined losses of the three leading online retailing platforms widened to Rs 5,052 crore in FY15 as they spent heavily on infrastructure and discounts to woo consumers.